Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Grows Position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in Ciena Co. (NYSE:CIEN) by 122.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 58,447 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,176 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Ciena were worth $4,957,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Hoese & Co LLP bought a new stake in shares of Ciena during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 424.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 451 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Ciena by 925.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 328 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ciena by 152.8% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 847 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Ciena in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Ciena in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas lowered Ciena from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $59.00 to $67.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ciena from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, October 7th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their target price on Ciena from $75.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price target on Ciena from $46.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ciena has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ciena

In other Ciena news, CEO Gary B. Smith sold 6,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.29, for a total transaction of $579,972.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 418,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,732,160.21. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Joseph Cumello sold 1,289 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.99, for a total transaction of $88,928.11. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 39,486 shares in the company, valued at $2,724,139.14. The trade was a 3.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,781 shares of company stock worth $4,298,500. 0.83% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ciena Stock Performance

Shares of CIEN stock opened at $84.96 on Friday. Ciena Co. has a 12-month low of $43.30 and a 12-month high of $91.82. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.33. The company has a current ratio of 3.55, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a PE ratio of 149.06, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.89.

Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 12th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by ($0.12). Ciena had a net margin of 2.09% and a return on equity of 4.72%. The business had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ciena Co. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ciena announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, October 2nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the communications equipment provider to repurchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Ciena

Ciena Corporation provides hardware and software services for delivery of video, data, and voice traffic metro, aggregation, and access communications network worldwide. The company’s Networking Platforms segment offers convergence of coherent optical transport, open optical networking, optical transport network switching, IP routing, and switching services.